Go gloveless

Nathaniel Hawthorne said, "A pure hand needs no glove to cover it." A pure heart needs no covering, either. It becomes evident no matter how hard the journey - purity is something we cannot (and should not) ever try to hide. Some might want to shun such purity, probably because it pricks at their conscience just a bit more than they'd like. Regardless of society's norms, we need to remain true to those God lays out in his Word. Only then will we realize purity of heart, mind, spirit, and soul.

Who may ascend the mountain of the Lord? Who may stand in his holy place? The one who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not trust in an idol or swear by a false god. They will receive blessing from the Lord and vindication from God their Savior. Such is the generation of those who seek him, who seek your face, God of Jacob. (Psalm 24:3-9)

Be a generation that seeks him. If we want to see God move across our city, we might just be the first one to seek him. It takes one spark to ignite a whole forest - be the spark. Don't ever fear that others will be offended by what God is doing within your life - it is light in a very dark world that pushes back that darkness, little bit by little bit. Stand with God - regardless of those who stand against him.

Vindication from God our Savior - isn't that a mouthful? I know I have so much sin that I need Jesus to wash away from my life. I needed his light to reveal what I kept hidden - no glove could cover over my sin. How about yours? We try hard to 'make good' what is really rotten to the core within our lives, but we don't do a very good job of it. A glove merely masks what is underneath it. Our facades are nothing more than lame masks trying to put forth one image of 'us' to the world, all the while knowing there is something else underneath that facade we don't want them to seem.

Who may stand? The one with clean hands and a pure heart. Clean hands come from a pure heart. A pure heart comes from having our sins washed away by the blood of Christ. Grace is the only thing that washes us clean. Grace means we don't need the gloves any longer. Just sayin!

No grit should remain

Only the person involved can know his own bitterness or joy—no one else can really share it. Laughter cannot mask a heavy heart. When the laughter ends, the grief remains. Only a simpleton believes everything he’s told! A prudent man understands the need for proof. A wise man is cautious and avoids danger; a fool plunges ahead with great confidence. A short-tempered man is a fool. He hates the man who is patient. The simpleton is crowned with folly; the wise man is crowned with knowledge. (Proverbs 14:10, 13, 15-18)

Whether we know it or not, we often bear our bitterness alone - although others may step in to attempt to help us bear it, it is primarily something we bear alone. We can experience great joy, but no one can fully experience it the same as we do. Emotions are really something others attempt to share with us and we with them, but in essence, the joy or bitterness of another is something we can never truthfully fully comprehend and experience in the same manner as the one experiencing it personally. Bitterness is a harsh emotion. I have a dark grey/black quartz kitchen sink and if I us an abrasive cleanser to clean it, I usually see something after having finished the cleaning - a residue. I don't wear gloves in the process, so I usually experience a little bit of an "after-taste" of the cleanser on my skin when I bring my hands to my face. Bitter things often leave an after-taste and a lot of residue in our lives. The after-taste and the residue are really experienced by the one with the bitterness - although others may see the mess left and get a little flavor of the issue which led up to the mess they see just by being around the bitter person.

Laughter is often used to attempt to conceal either the mess which has been left behind or the sourness which remains. Even after the laughter ends, a heaviness frequently returns - unspoken, but real to the one experiencing its weight. Things that are hard for us to bear, or wear us down, are never meant for us to bear alone. They aren't meant for us to hide deep within and never express. Try as we might, we really can never conceal what leaves a residue or gives a sharp after-taste anyway! The prudent carefully consider their steps unlike the fool who just believes everything he sees or is told. Now, consider how we might deal with bitterness in another. Brush the surface of that 'offended' area and we know something is hidden deeper because we experience the "grit" of bitterness. If we "listen" with our hearts to the 'concealing' laughter of the one who is really dealing with the mess left behind in their life by tragedy or misguided steps, we might just hear the extreme hurt and haunting emptiness bitterness has left in its path.

Laughter is an action or sound. In most circumstances we'd think it was linked to joy or excitement, but in some situations, it may just be a masking of something wearing the individual down on the inside. We use it as a tool to hide the real emotions we are experiencing. We have become quite proficient at concealing our emotions - using one thing or action to mask another. The wise will see beyond the action of laughter or the sound of "cheer" it may resemble. What they will experience when the laughter fades away is the "after-taste" of bitterness. If we really want to help another bear up under the weight they are experiencing, we need to cut past the laughter and get at what has left the residue - what brings the offensive after-taste in the first place. When we considered my sink, scrubbed a little raw by the cleanser, we might just have believed what remained is just a sign of the "cleanliness" of the sink. If we are truthful, the residue which remains isn't very attractive, nor is it pleasing to us because it rubs off on those who come into contact with it, the food rinsed in it, and neither is all that pleasant.

How do we deal with the cleanser's residue? Don't we rinse it time and time again until it has finally all found its way down the drain? Maybe we might just learn from this illustration as it applies to the residue of bitterness in our lives. We need a little more than the initial "cleansing" of those bitter feelings - we need the continual rinsing provided by the Word of God and the guidance of the Holy Spirit until the remaining residue and sour after-taste is finally gone! We often don't see the residue because we believe the cleaning was all there was to the matter. A close friend may be the one who will actually point out the need for the "rinsing" of the residue! If they experience a bit of the 'grit' of bitterness, they might just say something - we need to hear what they say. Just sayin!

Your Inside World

You’re blessed when you get your inside world—your mind and heart—put right. Then you can see God in the outside world. (Matthew 5:8)

I just caught a short post on social media about a 'street takeover' in a local community here in which streets were blocked, vehicles were doing donuts around the intersection, a home was hit by gunfire, and people were just acting really dumb. Purity sometimes gets overlooked because we don't live in a very "pure" world, do we? It is hard to make pure choices when all around us we are bombarded with all manner of wrong choices. Purity is the freedom from anything which debases (reduces in quality or value), contaminates (adding/mixing in that which makes unclean), or pollutes (corrupts or defiles). Impurity is the "adding in" of something which does not belong. That which does not belong actually changes the consistency or integrity of what does. It may be hard to keep out that which does not belong, but we certainly need to do everything within our ability to do so!

But friends, that’s exactly who we are: children of God. And that’s only the beginning. Who knows how we’ll end up! What we know is that when Christ is openly revealed, we’ll see him—and in seeing him, become like him. All of us who look forward to his Coming stay ready, with the glistening purity of Jesus’ life as a model for our own. (I John 3:2-3)

Purity of heart - mind, will, and emotions untainted by that which "adds in" the things that confuse, bring conflict in our motives, or sets us up to rely upon the unreliable. It is with pure hearts we are able to see God - for God is pure. Children like to emulate adults, don't they? They mimic behaviors they see in the adults they are frequently around. The same is true of a child of God - we mimic the behaviors of the one we behold the most frequently. If we are beholding Christ, we mimic his behaviors. If we are beholding others who are not like Christ, we might just begin to mimic their 'not so pure' behavior. Purity is the absence of something. We somehow think purity is the "adding" of something rather than allowing something to be removed. In scripture, this might be accomplished in the refiner's fire. The fire of the refiner burns hot, allowing the metals to melt, bringing to the surface the things which are "contaminants" in the metals - those things which will weaken the integrity and strength of the metal. We also see the idea of the threshing wheel - the place where the grain is turned over and over again until the grain is separated from the unusable part known as the chaff. The chaff is blown away, the wheat remains. There is also the winemaker observing his wine. As the grapes are crushed, the juices are extracted, leaving behind that which will only add bitterness and impurity to the finished product. All these speak to the idea of being free from something which contaminates, weakens, or renders less than useful.

Purity is the absence of the "contaminating" influences which impact our choices in life. Whenever we are faced with choices, we find ourselves "weighing" the choices. Why? One appears better than the other - it has some "merit" which makes us want to make one choice over the other. When we are making choices from a pure heart, they will be wise ones. When we have impurities in our heart (mind, will or emotions), we might just find ourselves making choices which don't produce the purest product in the end. Purity is actually the result of several things: Cleansing, Sifting, and Burning. We often think of cleansing as that which is accomplished through some process of scrubbing, sanitizing, or a sweeping away. God might just think of cleansing as any process which actually empties us. Empty vessels are readied to receive something afresh. Cleansing actually "freshens" us - readying us for the new thing God wants to do within.

Mom always had a sifter back in the day. We don't so much use them today. In fact, they are hard to find. The purpose of the sifter was to separate. The coarse parts of the flour were separated from the finer parts. This is exactly how God uses this process in our lives - he separates the coarser (unwholesome) parts from the finer parts. Not too many of us want to jump into the fire because the furnace is a "hot" place. If a farmer has a stump right in the middle of his field, he may work at removing that stump for a long time. Digging it out may not seem practical. Leaving it there allows for it regrow and is a hindrance to the plow. He will often resort to burning it out. He exposes it as much as possible and then burns it. As the burning process occurs, the stump is "consumed". In the consumption of the stump, it reduces in size and strength. The fire of God's Word is kind of like this in our lives - it consumes us, reducing anything which will present a hindrance to our spiritual, emotional, or relational health.

Purpose is the reason we exist, passion is what gives us the "umph" to fulfill our purpose, and purity is the basis by which we see God's purpose fully come alive in each and every aspect of our lives. Instead of resisting the cleansing, sifting, and burning in our lives, maybe we'd do well to embrace it as the means by which we come into what God fully purposes for us - the place where the inside and outside perfectly reflect his passion. Just sayin!

Where are you?

We have a whole lot of terms for the transition of life referred to in religious circles as 'salvation' - inviting Jesus into your heart, making him Lord of your life, being saved, finding new life. We need to keep in mind one thing - our "salvation experience" is a one-time experience that involves an "exchange" of our sinfully selfish nature for the holy nature of Christ. This happens both instantly and it takes time - while we 'receive' the exchanged life at that point of 'salvation', it can take us a lifetime to see it 'worked out' in every area of our lives!

Jesus said, "You're not listening. Let me say it again. Unless a person submits to this original creation—the 'wind-hovering-over-the-water' creation, the invisible moving the visible, a baptism into a new life—it's not possible to enter God's kingdom. When you look at a baby, it's just that: a body you can look at and touch. But the person who takes shape within is formed by something you can't see and touch—the Spirit—and becomes a living spirit." (John 3:5-6)

Our life is supposed to change once we accept the awesome gift of Christ's death on the cross on our behalf. We could call that one time experience a "rebirth" process. It is where we get the term "born again". At that moment in time the exchange of character that takes shape within us is formed by something we cannot see or touch - we become alive within our spirit-realm. Never miss the fact that  it is by no action of our own that our spirit is reborn. It is by the work of the Holy Spirit within us. When we have a mindset and 'heart-set' change - believing that Jesus is the full and permanent provision for the forgiveness of our sins - God goes to work in us! The exchanged life is really the changing of our desires. Through the work of the Holy Spirit, we develop a desire to love God. We don't possess that naturally. In fact, we don't possess the desire to love unconditionally at all! That is a learned thing - the closer we get to God, the more we understand love without strings attached. The Holy Spirit is also responsible for helping us to serve God with our whole being - body, soul, and spirit. It is that "help" that actually makes us act and appear "different" than we were prior to that rebirth. If we find we aren't acting the way we want to it may just be time to ask the Holy Spirit to help change our actions!

Now God has us where he wants us, with all the time in this world and the next to shower grace and kindness upon us in Christ Jesus. Saving is all his idea, and all his work. All we do is trust him enough to let him do it. It's God's gift from start to finish! We don't play the major role. If we did, we'd probably go around bragging that we'd done the whole thing! No, we neither make nor save ourselves. God does both the making and saving. He creates each of us by Christ Jesus to join him in the work he does, the good work he has gotten ready for us to do, work we had better be doing. (Ephesians 2:7-10)

God has us where he wants us - right next to his bosom - close to his heart. That is the direct result of the salvation experience. In that position, he is able to shower upon us his graces. SAVING is all his idea, and all his work. That means that we don't even desire to have an exchanged life until he places that desire there within us. It also means that we do absolutely nothing from start to finish to accomplish that exchange except say 'yes' - the exchange begins there, but in time, we will find we must recommit to it over and over again! If you have ever wondered who is more powerful - God or Satan - let me settle it - God is supreme - he is sovereign. Satan operates ONLY within the boundaries God allows for him. Sometimes we don't understand why God allows for Satan to have any "reign" at all - but we have to trust God's design. It is important to recognize that God will not allow Satan to do anything at all that could alter our position in Christ. It is impossible for Satan to "take us away" from God! We are his! He watches over us and he cares for us - each one in an intimate way. We do NOTHING to gain our salvation - it is a gift of God, plain and simple. We cannot be "stolen away" from God by a crafty act of Satan. We are secure in his care - although we may be a target of Satan's attacks, we are not subject to his winning those attacks! Just sayin!